In the future, several providers will jointly provide a service and make it available to customers via a platform. This sounds like a dream of the future, especially when you consider that in the industry, a service was long regarded as a purely product-related and machine-related service to support the capital goods business. This is still often the case today, but the understanding and range of services on offer is constantly evolving. Increasing customer value and service orientation are becoming key drivers in competition. New service-oriented business models are taking advantage of the ongoing digitalization and are relying on Internet of Things technologies (IoT), blockchain or artificial intelligence.
In principle, industrial services can be divided into two subsectors: Physical services, for example the performance of maintenance work by service providers on a machine in the production hall on site, and digital services, for example condition monitoring of a machine through digital machine and production data independent of the location. As digitalization progresses, the market is increasingly demanding integrated solutions that combine physical and digital service modules, so-called hybrid services. Complexity is increasing and individual companies, especially medium-sized ones, are often no longer able to provide all the required competencies.
The solutions to this are the Platform Economy and a cooperative provision of services – Sealed Services. Different service providers share the development and provision of services via digital platforms and thus make them available to potential customers. In this process, a complex service is provided in the sense of co-production by several companies, each working in the area of their expertise. Focusing on core competencies ensures high service quality for customers and cost-efficient delivery for providers. The platform maintains security, integrity and sovereignty criteria in the execution of shared services.